"We had a sense of urgency about adopting and implementing this plan," commission chairman Joseph Maraziti said late last week at the public meeting at which the vote was taken. The lone dissenter was David Fisher, who is also the only commissioner actually in the development business.

With commission approval of the plan, observers say the onus now falls on the state's top elected officials. As Barbara Lawrence of the New Jersey Future, a non-profit economic development group, told attendees at the meeting, "the spotlight has clearly shifted to the governor and legislature."

That's because the plan departs from the earlier one by emphasizing incentives for developers to build in cities and suburbs while leaving open space alone. Incentives covering everything from adaptive re-use to brownfield redevelopment still have to be enacted--hence the focus on the governor and legislature.